Introduction

February 28, 2009
Camp Johnson
17:06 EST - I missed food for this.

I've recently been thinking about starting a blog about my life in the Marine Corps because I think that I go through some...interesting things on a daily basis, whether or not they are pleasent. While I think that the main audience for this would be people who I know personally such as family and friends, I'll be writing it in a way that any random person could understand. For instance, I'll be explaining basic things about myself regularly that anyone I know or am related to would already know, but will clarify information for someone who doesn't know me.

Now, what you're really wondering is, why am I starting a blog? I'm not a notable person that can advertise this thing on every mainstream site for all of my fans to come and read, I'm just a normal guy who's going to keep a journal. Mainly, this is for me. Since I've joined the military, a lot of things have occured in my life and I think that, for the most part, they're worth keeping a record of, especially the way I felt or reacted in certain instances, along with the people I've come across. I'll probably be changing the names of a few people who I doubt would feel comfortable appearing, but if you're reading this you're probably not one of them.

One of my objectives here is to clarify things about the military that were probably not clear to me before I enlisted. I say probably because I don't really recall my total knowledge of the USMC while I was in the enlisting process. There are things the recruiters do not tell you. These things are going to be a focus here. I honestly don't plan on posting here every single day, as "cool" things don't happen to me on a daily basis, but if I enjoy this enough and if other people do, I might make it more regular. Also, if there are typos or something that pop up in here and you see them, please tell me so I can fix it and not look retarded to the next person that reads. I'll probably be coming back to old enteries and editing them for clarity, or referring to older entries in the future which might force me to edit something older. Honestly, I've never devoted myself to someone else's blog before, so this is new to me.

Another note: I'll try to make this for as widely a ranged audience as possible, but I'm rating it 18+ ahead of time because I may refer to things of a more adult nature, but I'll probably blank out the more "extreme" expletives.

For Your Knowledge

Here are some terms used by the Marine Corps (most adopted by the Navy) to refer to certain objects or acts. I'm not going to use these during the entries because honestly, most of them are stupid and I don't even use them unless I'm talking to a Sergeant or above. Sergeants or above are really the only Marines who care if people even use Naval terminology in normal speech. I'll come back to this list as I recall new words or phrases:

Boot Camp Dictionary
In the order I remember them:

- Deck - n. Floor
- Bulkhead - n. Wall
- Overhead - n. Ceiling
- Ladderwell - n. Stairs
- Porthole - n. Window
- Rack - n. Bed
- Hatch - n. Door
- Kevlar - n. Helmet
- Ditty - n. Involves marching. Hard to explain. I'll talk about it during the Boot Camp section.
- Drill - n. Marching
- Surfeboard - n. Ironing Board
- Fang Gear - n. A tooth brush taped to tooth paste.
- Knowledge - n. Any type of reading material testable or otherwise used to educate.
- Hygiene - v. The act of showering and/or shaving and/or brushing "fangs."
- Scuttlebutt(sp?) - n. Either a drinking fountain or gossip. I never say this word.
- Head - n. Bathroom
- Pisser - n. Urinal
- Shitter- n. Toilet
- Pisser Room - n. The room containing pissers.
- Shitter Room - n. The room containing shitters.
- Shitter Stall - n. Referred to much less obnoxiously in civilian life.
- Rain Room - n. The room containing showers.
- Rain Tree - n. A column from which about five or six shower heads extend from.
- Brightwork - n. On a ship, I believe it refers to brass. In Boot Camp, "brightwork" was anything shiny that we had to keep shiny when we cleaned.
- Field Day - n./v. Either the day of cleaning in the USMC, or the act of cleaning. "Field day your room right now!"
- Squad Bay - n. The large open room in a barracks where an average of 90 people will sleep on about twenty bunks lining each side of the room.
- Crack Alley - n. The area between the two rows of racks in a Squad Bay where more racks are placed for more people to sleep on.
- Reveille - n. The time when one must wake up in the morning. Usually between 4 and 5 AM on a week day.
- Disgusting - n. Anyone except a Drill Instructor.
- The Silver Bullet - n. The object that a recruit (or Marine) loses their anal virginity to upon fainting from dehydration. Administered by a Navy Hospital Corpsman.
- Hydrate - n. The act of drinking water.
- Blouse - n. The top coat or jacket worn with the uniform.
- Trousers - n. Any pants.
- Go Fasters - n. Any type of running shoes.
- Boot Socks - n. Brown, green, or black socks worn with boots.
- Wooly Pulley - n. The much maligned green sweater worn with the Service Uniform Bravos.
- Inspector Gadget Coat - n. The much maligned coat making the wearer resemble the popular cartoon character, Inspector Gadget.
- Chow - n. Food
- IT (Incentive Training) - n./v. A punishment during Boot Camp where the subject who gets in trouble will have to execute a number of exercises in a very fast manner without stopping. They include exercises such as pushups, jumping jacks (side straddle hops), steam engines, mountain climbers, crunches, etc. "Man I'm gonna get IT'd tomorrow for screwing up today!"
- Side Straddle Hops - n. What jumping jacks are called in the USMC.
- Steam Engines - n. An exercise where the person locks their hands on the back of their head, bends over and raises their left knee to their right elbow and vice versa over and over and over again.
- Mountain Climbers - n. An exercise during which a person is in the pushup position, but instead of pushing, they bring their feet individually up as close to their hands as they can.
- Smurf Jacks or Smurf Straddle Hops - n. Jumping jacks executed in a way that the person's legs are bent at a 90 degree angle.
- Quarter Deck - n. The area in the front of the squad bay which is usually left open for IT sessions. It's near the front door.
- On Line - n. A position in which the recruits of a platoon during boot camp will stand in front of their racks facing eachother and waiting silently.
- Drill Instructor Highway - n. The area in the squadbay between the racks where drill instructors will pace back and forth while recruits wait on line.
- Recruit Highway - n. The area behind racks which is to be utilized by recruits to move to the front and back of the squad bay, as well as getting to their racks.
- Whiskey Locker - n. A closet at the front of the squad bay which contains mostly cleaning supplies, but may contain other things as well.
- Firewatch - n. A guard duty done at night (or during the day while at MCT or MOS School Forming) where a participant is considered to be on duty while walking a patrol or manning a post. The guard must keep accountability of how many weapons/people he is guarding and make a report of this to an NCO or above. More hours of firewatch are given out as punishment for making mistakes during the day, thus limiting the hours of sleep someone may have.

Common Phrases used in the Marine Corps
In the order I remember them:

- "Fat 'n Nasty" - A way to refer to getting out of shape or eating badly. "I'm ready to get fat 'n nasty this weekend!"
- "Aye Aye" - The way to acknowledge a given command from a senior Marine. In Boot Camp this is screamed at the top of one's lungs. "Aye aye, Sergeant!"
- "It'd behoove you" - Meaning that it would be wise for you to do whatever you are being commanded to do. This is often used to accompany a command that is off the record. "It'd be who of you to have your names sewn on your kevlars for tomorrow morning. Now, am I saying wake up tonight and do it? No, but they better magically appear by tomorrow!" (I'll explain this)
- "I guess we___" or "I'm pretty sure we___" - Two phrases used to sarcastically suggest error in the subject addressed. "I guess we wear our blouse on backwards now, right!?" or "I'm pretty sure we clean our ears every night!"

Common Boot Camp Commmands (When a drill instructor calls out one of these commands, the command is repeated loudly by the recruits being commanded. Ex. DI: "Set up the ghetto!" Rcts: "Set up the ghetto, aye aye, sir!")
In order that I remember them:

- "Set up the university!" - Setting up the "university" is what happens when recruits must learn their knowledge or take tests in the squad bay. It involves sliding footlockers out from the racks so that recruits can sit side by side. Without a picture, only people who've gone through it really know what I'm talking about.
- "Set up the classroom!" - The act of recruits sitting in rows on the quarter deck with a podium set up in front of them that the drill instructor stands behind and either teaches or hands out mail from.
- "Set up the mini-grinder!" - This entails recruits moving all of the racks to one side of the squad bay leaving a large open area where the platoon can get in formation to practice drill inside.
- "Set of the ghetto!" - During field training at a bivouac(sp?) site, this involves recruits snapping together their "shelter halves" to make a tent and staking it down in the dirt.
- "Turn to core(corps) values!" or "Secure core values!" - After a hygiene inspection before lights out, a drill instructor instigates a period of time where recruits may come foreword and say something in front of the platoon.
- "Turn to evening devotion!" or "Secure evening devotion!" - A period of time instigated during which recruits may stand on line and pray (or not) or go to their prayer groups nightly. This is required to be at least five minutes every night.

Recruit Billets
Jobs that recruits hold in the platoon:
- Guide - The senior recruit (or Marine) in a platoon given the authority by a senior Marine to keep accountability and make mass decisions for the platoon. The guide is usually picked at random for size and is expected to gain leadership abilities on his own; if not he is fired and replaced. The guide is more often than not punished for the actions of the entire platoon.
- Squad Leader - The second highest billet in a platoon. The squad leader is in charge of their squad, which should be about 20 - 25 people.
- Scribe - Often picked for looking literate (wearing glasses) or having good handwriting, the scribes make the firewatch rosters, and take down other written information or data at the drill instructor's needs.
- Whiskey Locker Recruit or Whiskey Pig - Recruits who are in charge of the gear and cleanliness of the whiskey locker. They are often irritable and hard to get along with because of the whiskey locker's frequent destruction by drill instructors during the evening hours.
- Artist Recruit - Recruits in charge of drawing for the drill instructors. They often get out of cleaning duties.
- Witch Doctor - A recruit who is somewhat knowledgable in first aid.
- Crack Dealer - A recruit in charge of rationing out the daily prescribed medicine of those who go to medical for either illness or injury.
- Fireteam Leader
- Rifleman
- Machine Gunner
- A-Gunner

I'll be coming back to this section to add what I've forgotten.

All images courtesy of wikipedia.org. I don't own these pictures, so don't sue me for using them.